5 Tips for Racing a Time Trial

"In Part II, we touched on better bike position, specific equipment to improve speed and tricks to use during the effort that will save you time."

When racing a time trial (TT), it's the little details that can make or break your race. Even with your best effort, success and failure is separated by the thinnest of margins.

To get the most out of your performance, it's important to look at factors that can influence the end result of your race. While most cyclists spend time concentrating on their effort during the race, not enough attention is paid to getting a proper warm-up and key environmental factors, which can pay huge dividends if done correctly.

More: Racing Your First Time Trial

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of a proper warm-up and how to use environmental factors to your advantage, let's look at the recommended equipment for your time trial:

1. A purpose-built bike for time trials (or 'tri-bike').
2. Skin suit. This is a one piece, zip-up garment that should fit like a second skin. Can be either short sleeved or long sleeved.
3. Aerodynamic helmet.
4. Shoe covers.
5. Heart rate monitor and cyclocomputer (wireless preferred).

More: Riding the Race of Truth: Training for a Time Trial

Optional equipment:

1. Rear full disc wheel (or wheel cover) and deep rim profile front wheel.
2. TT specific tires.

Pro Style Warm-up

If you've ever watched a professional bike race like the Tour de France on TV, the riders warm up on stationary trainers before the start of a TT. The riders are not warming up easy. They alternate high cadences and big gears to get the heart rate up close to threshold—near what it'll be during the race. The principal here is, the shorter the TT, the longer the warm-up needs to be.

More: 10 Common Time Trial Mistakes

To perfect your warm-up, you need to time it just right so that you can go to the line sweating and with the engine revved. The ideal span of time between completing your warm-up and the start time should be no more than 10 minutes. You'll want to save only the exact amount of time it takes to put your helmet and glasses on, make any last-minute equipment adjustments and get your bike to the starting line.

The best way to make this work is to warm-up on a bike other than the TT bike you're racing on. This will enable you to have your TT bike ready to go so that all you'll have to do is hop off your road bike, grab your TT bike and go.

You could warm up on your TT bike, but typically you wouldn't want your nice race wheel and tire in your trainer. And the extra time needed to unlock your TT bike from the trainer and change to you rear race wheel isn't conducive. It's the extra time that can be the difference between arriving at the start line with properly warmed muscles or cold muscles that are tight.

More: Buying Time: Which Aero Equipment Offers the Most Benefits?

Manage Elevation Gains

Most TT's are flat or rolling and have only small changes in elevation. When going up an incline, it's best to hold a steady effort and keep your normal pace. Unless it's the end of the TT or you've for some reason tactically planned to go hard on a particular hill, hold your normal pace when going up.

When going downhill, up your effort and go harder. Why? Because you have gravity assisting you, and the risk for going too hard is low. Even if you go a little harder than you planned, you should be able to recover in a short amount of time.

More: 10 Common Time Trial Mistakes

Use the Wind to Your Advantage

When racing into a headwind or crosswind, use the same rules as you would when going uphill. Keep your efforts steady and smooth. If you've planned to go hard on a part of a course after you did your homework and the wind is on your face, then do what you planned. Otherwise, hold your effort. When the wind is at your back, get on the gas. Go hard and use the wind to your advantage.

Cut the Curves

If the course is curvy or technical, try to cut the apex of the curves the best you can. Word of caution: If the course is open to traffic, be careful and DO NOT go over the center line of the road. You'll expose yourself to oncoming traffic, and any time saved isn't worth the risk of a potential head-on collision. For larger radius curves, stay in your aero extensions if you have the bike handling skills to do so.

More: Improve Your Aero Positioning With These 5 Stretches

The White-Line Technique

Lastly, there's a technique called "white line TT," which refers to the line on the side of the road that marks the border of the lane from the shoulder. As mentioned in Part II, getting your head down and out of the wind is a key factor in helping you stay aero. If the course you're racing on is using maintained and marked roads, you can keep your head down and look at the pavement to make sure you're going in a straight line.

The white line serves as a guide without having to pick your head up to watch where you're going 100 percent of the race. Keeping your head down will leave you less exposed to the wind and make you faster. You still need to pick your head up periodically to see what's coming up the road, but by using the white line as your guide, your head can be down more often and out of the wind. That means you're shaving seconds off of your finishing time.

You still need to work on fitness to meet your goals in a time trial, but by using these tips you can get the most out of your TT performance.

More: Decreasing Aerodynamic Drag